The End of Independent Federal Agencies Will Change Your Business

In a blockbuster case, Trump v. Slaughter, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the president could, at will, dismiss appointees to independent regulatory agencies who had already been confirmed by Congress, overturning a nearly 100-year-old precedent that held the opposite. For business leaders, this watershed decision will likely lead to less certainty and consistency for the regulated aspects of their business, with federal rules and their enforcement increasingly determined by political expediency rather than expert analysis. Under the Court’s reasoning, future presidents may now dismiss any commissioner from the other party (or their own) for any reason—or, indeed, no reason at all. That leaves many so-called “independent” agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board, far more directly subject to presidential control than at any time in nearly a century. While several recent Supreme Court decisions have limited the ability of federal agencies to act independently, the Slaughter decision represents a seismic shift in how the federal government will regulate a wide range of industries. 

[Blair Levin is a non-resident fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former chief of staff of the Federal Communications Commission. Larry Downes is a co-author of Pivot to the Future:  Discovering Value and Creating Growth in a Disrupted World (PublicAffairs 2019). His earlier books include Big Bang Disruption, The Laws of Disruption, and Unleashing the Killer App.]